We agree with him (though for a different reason). Hey, who are we to argue with the Badshah?

Trust Shahrukh Khan to dig up an old topic and make it interesting again. Ten years after critics first debated his performance in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s 2002 film Devdas, Shahrukh has decided to side with his detractors rather than his fans. The actor was the special guest at an event to launch Nasreen Munni Kabir’s book The Dialogue of Devdas containing all the lines of the 1955 film Devdas, starring Dilip Kumar and directed by Bimal Roy. Not only did SRK praise the thespian’s performance, he also claimed that nobody should try to imitate him. “You can’t imitate Mr Dilip Kumar. Whoever copies Dilip Kumar, they are idiots like me,” he said, referring to the fact that both of them had essayed the title role of the drunken lover in their films. “I have a very deep regard for the fact that my parents loved Devdas (the 1955 one). I was very young and stupid when I said yes and did it, but as I am getting mature, (and) hopefully more intelligent, and perhaps would not be able to do it this time,” he added.

While such statements are expected from the star, something else he said surprised us. Shahrukh specified that none of them – Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Aishwarya Rai (who plays Paro) or Madhuri Dixit (who plays Chandramukhi) – had watched Dilip Kumar’s Devdas before they worked on their film. “Had we seen the film before making it, we would never have had the guts to make it. Sanjay, Aishwarya and Madhuri – we all felt that first we should finish the film and then we should watch it,” he said. So, if he hadn’t seen the film, then how could he have imitated Dilip Kumar? If he hadn’t imitated him, then how is he an idiot? If he has imitated the veteran, then it naturally follows he must have seen the older film before he acted in his version, doesn’t it? Okay, so which is the bare truth and which is the embellished one? Or does SRK define doing the same role as “imitating” someone? But Dilip Kumar wasn’t the first to play Devdas. KL Saigal had enacted the doomed lover’s role way before Dilipsaab. Looks like for once, Shahrukh has got caught in his own web of witticisms.